Pirates & Privateers: Arne Bialuschewski's Books

Writing an account about buccaneers from a new perspective isn’t an easy task after centuries of books published on the subject. Yet this is exactly what Bialuschewski achieves in Raiders and Natives. From first page to last, this engrossing and unique examination shines an illuminating light on European gentlemen of fortune and native peoples they encountered in their search for riches.

Illustrations and maps are shared throughout seven chapters: The Rise of the Buccaneers, Mayas Besieged, The Granada Raid, Natives and Intruders in Central America, Intercultural Alliances on the Mosquito Coast, Shifting Alliances on Panamá’s Darién Frontier, and South Sea Incursions. Also included are an explanation on terminology used, end notes, and an index.

This study on cross-cultural interactions begins with the 1676 visit to Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast by English and French buccaneers under the command of William Wright, Jean Tristan, and Bartholomew Sharpe. They sought indigenous people willing to guide them 450 miles into the interior to attack Nueva Segovia. These guides would also be instrumental in providing food and assistance with other natives encountered along the way.

Among the other events discussed within the book are Piet Hein’s 1536 attack on the Spanish treasure fleet off the coast of Cuba, Jan Janszoon van Hoorn’s raid on Campeche in 1633, an attack on Granada in 1665 in which nine local men took part, and a march across the Isthmus of Panama in 1680. Named buccaneers and natives include David Maarten, Juan Galliardo, François L’Olonnais, Laurens Prins, Joseph Bannister, Lionel Wafer, André de Ibarra, and Richard Sawkins. Also covered are explanations of how the Spanish established their authority over indigenous people.

Trade played an integral role in these interactions, as did the ability to communicate with each other. The buccaneers sought not only riches through robbery, but also the means to survive in a hostile and alien environment. The natives could provide the latter in exchange for better tools that improved their ways of life or enhanced their prestige within their communities.

Time and again, Bialuschewski demonstrates the crucial roles indigenous people played in the buccaneering raids, whether they were allies or sided with the Spanish. Some raids were successful, others not so much. What cannot be denied is that without these cross-cultural dealings, the buccaneers might have been swallowed up in the large swaths of uninhabited jungle and lost to history forever. Equally compelling is how the author demonstrates that these encounters were both beneficial and life changing. He provides an insightful and fascinating account of the complexity of each interaction in this part of the seventeenth-century world.